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Breaking down the costs.

We recently had a dowser come to the homestead. It was amazing! She used ChannelLock pliers to find the water. We both tried the pliers and had no luck but we were able to use her copper rods (like our bent coat hangers) and it worked great for us. She found water at the highest point on our property and it seems to run along there. Then, she held a branch over the spot and it bobbed 12 times. Each time it bobs, its supposed to represent 3 feet of depth. According to the alder branch and our dowser, we have water at about 36 feet. For DEC approval, we would need to dig to 40 feet. Hopefully that is still good.

The potential of having running water got us very excited. I (Jane) have been living without running water for about 7 years now. Its about the same for Eli. Running to the outhouse is a nusiance sometimes but was is more of a bother is bathing. Most people don't have to think about where to take a shower when planning out their day or week. The concept of just stepping into a shower right here at home when we are feeling dirty and tired is a very compelling one. Not to mention the whole issue of hauling water from town and  dumping buckets of dirty dish water. So, once we got the good news about a water source, we got inspired to plan out a way to make this a reality.

It quickly became apparent though, that this was one more project that will have to stay on the back burner as we just have too many things to finish in order to move in before winter comes.

We have a list of goals and expenses on our wall in the cabin to help us plan out what our upcoming goals are and what the anticiapted cost is for those goals.

Project costs


Upstairs insulation $2,500

Upstairs sheetrock, mudding and taping $1,000

Upstairs Painting $200

Finish crawl space with gravel, insulation and skirting $3,000

Carpeting upstairs $600

Get a queen size bed $1500

Finish the woodstove surround $100

Finish the stairs and railing $200

Composting toilet    $400

Total $9,300

Other costs beyond this

Having a well drilled and pump installed     at least $3,000

Installing a leach field  for gray water    about $500

Building an addition for a bathroom   $?

Siding $?


I am also taking classes to get my Masters Degree in Special Education.  Getting financial aide for college is helping us with our house building. But, sad to say, it doesn't look like running water is going to be an option for a little while longer. Maybe next year. That said, there is a link above for you to be able to make a donation  to us to help us with our dream. If you can't afford to make a donation, please feel free to click some ads and browse for a while. That earns us a little $ too.

Thanks!

Color me happy!

After the insulation was done, we started moving pretty quickly again.

We did all the wall sheetrock on the first floor.

We also put on two coats of primer. So white!

Once it was primed, Eli tried his hand at some texturing on the ceiling. We liked how it looked, so we went ahead and textured the walls as well.

Then came the paint.....

We had a hard time choosing a color for the ceiling and wound up with a color called "Natually Calm". It was somewhere between "Creme Brule" and "Brown Paper Bag".

When choosing a color for the walls, we wanted something a little different than the brown on the ceiling. So, we looked at some pale tones.

Pale blue? no.

Pale red? No, that's pink and we can't have that!

Pale yellow? Hmmmm....maybe.

We kinda liked the orange tinted colors and wound up choosing something called "Japanese Koi". I knew that once we got it on the walls, it would be a bit stunning. But WOW! When I came in the house and saw the outlines Eli had done around the windows and other accents,

my eyes popped. I felt like I had stepped into a child's painting.

Once it was all filled in though, it had a nice energy to it.

And here it is with lights (one pendant like the other picured) hasn't been put in place yet over the kitchen sink area at left) and the paper/plastic removed form the beams and log post.

I LOVE it now.

The colors we chose really bring out the natural tones in the wood.

It's amazing!

I love our house!

Getting Warmer......

We FINALLY got more insulation! We hired Hillside Construction (of Homer) to install 4 inches of closed cell spray foam insulation on the first floor. It has taken us a while to save up the $2,500 to have this done.

Once we had saved it up, we contacted a different local contractor who was unwilling to do the job until the summer because the expensive equipment in their long trailer had nearly been lost before on roads much better than ours. So, they didn't want to take that risk.

Before

During

So, we contacted a couple of other contractors, including Hillside and only heard back from them. I have no idea why people didn't want the work. Regardless, Mike Basargin and his co-worker Ivan came up on Tuesday around Noon and worked until about 9PM. This was the first time that we hired anyone to do work on our house. It was hard to be patient and stay out of the way as they worked.

Scraping the studs

As soon as we heard the generator stop, we leapt from the loveseat in the cabin and helped them clean up as they scraped the extra insluation off the studs.

Cleaning Up

The Finished Product

The woodstove has been put back in place and the plastic sheathing has been removed from the doors and windows.

The next step is to begin sheetrocking. The "lid" and the entryway walls are the first priority for that project.

We decided that insulating the first floor fully would allow us to then move forward and take the next steps and make it more of a home. We had contemplated applying 2" of spray foam throughout the house (because that was what we could afford) but realized that we wouldn't really be able to do much after that except wait until we had the money to get more insulation.

So, as of March 3rd, that is where we are. :)

Planning and saving

During this cold winter, we are still saving to apply spray foam insulation in the house. At R-7, just one inch of it will bring us to the insulation level of our 12x16 cabin! We will be filling the wall cavities in one way or another but I think that the comparison gives a little perspective...

Jane is thinking about trying to do some more chainsaw milling; perhaps to make some siding out of the logs which were previusly going to be used as sill logs. Gotta get the saw prepped and ready though. Here, Jane is cleaning the air filter in a Ziploc baggie with dish soap and warm water. This is by far the easiest and least messy way to clean these things.

It's Electrictrifying!

During the last week of September, Eli toiled in the frigid air, sawing stumps, clearing debris and digging a 120ft long trench from our shed to the new house.

After covereing the wire with a little dirt, a strip of flagging was laid over it, so that if someone should dig in the wrong place in the future, they would hit the flagging first and know that something is up.

Main panel wired up and ready to go. Sub panel, in the house, ready to go.

THE FIRST LIGHT SWITCH!

And.....IT WORKS!!!!!

It's official. We now have electricity!

A little bit of mud, a little bit of tape

We got some tape on the seams on the bedroom and stairwell. :-)